SPILL ALBUM PREMIERE: UMA BLOO – DON’T DRIVE INTO THE SMOKE

UMA BLOO – DON’T DRIVE INTO THE SMOKE

A SPILL EXCLUSIVE ALBUM PREMIERE

Tomorrow, Uma Bloo — the musical project of Chicago artist Molly Madden — shares their brand new album entitled, Don’t Drive Into the Smoke, via Earth Libraries. Carved out by Madden’s heartfelt lyricism, heavy with romanticism and unafraid to be honest, and an amalgamation of intricate shoegaze-y melodies and cathartic guitar-led breakdowns, this is a record one can easily get sucked into.

Speaking on the album and its inspirations, Madden wrote the following:

“When I started writing the songs that ended up making the album, I didn’t know I was writing an album. I started playing guitar when I was eight years old and it was then I knew I wanted to be a songwriter. Unfortunately, music and art didn’t tie in with my family’s values, so there was a lot that stood in the way of me exercising my abilities and desires. So, I was an on again, off again musician until I got to Chicago at eighteen. Once I accepted the fact that I wanted to create my own music, these songs started pouring out of me in an effort to unpack the life I had and what I thought I wanted to build. In a lot of ways, this album has been in process since I was eight years old without me fully knowing it. So, I’d say this album was inspired by fate and how when you acknowledge destiny you cannot deny it, although that truth doesn’t always result in peace.”

“At the time I was writing the songs, I thought I was trying to understand myself romantically. What was I like to love, what did I need from it? But now that I have a number of years between myself then and now, I realize it’s an album largely about processing loss during a coming of age. I had been feeling like a life I desired was unattainable and living inside of a dream.”

Uma Bloo began as Madden’s stage persona she created for burlesque performances, and once she really got into playing music, the transition was natural. Today, Uma Bloo is a four-piece, rounded out by Mike Altergott (lead guitar/vocals), Luke Blanco (bass), and Steven Rutledge (drums). Their new album Don’t Drive Into the Smoke, is out tomorrow via Earth Libraries.

Uma Bloo
Don’t Drive Into The Smoke
(Earth Libraries)
Release Date: March 23, 2022

Don’t Drive Into The Smoke Track Listing

01 Never Know Me
02 Annie
03 Marguerite’s Novels
04 Coming Home
05 Strange Actress
06 Meow
07 Fathers And Their Lies
08 The Actor’s Last Question
09 Don’t Drive into the Smoke
10 To Be Vast
11 Little Baby

Artist Links

Background Photo Credit: Monika Oliver